Seagrass decline

Despite seagrasses constitute habitats of paramount importance worldwide, severe declines have been identified. We’ve just published that the seagrass Cymodocea nodosa has suffered a decline in the last 17 years in Gran Canaria. This decrease in C. nodosa correlated with a 3-fold increase in the biomass of the green rhizophytic algae Caulerpa prolifera over the same time period. Observational and experimental evidence further demonstrated negative interactions between C. nodosa and C. prolifera, though putative mechanisms driving interactions remain untested. Visit the article section to download the paper.